THE ULTRASTRUCTURE OF LIVER CELLS IN WOMEN UNDER STEROID THERAPY

Abstract

ABSTRACT An electron microscopic study of liver biopsies of women under steroid therapy was carried out. Liver biopsies taken with a Menghini needle from five healthy young women during their last trimester of pregnancy revealed elongation, gigantism and lamellar osmiophilic matrical inclusions in approximately 10% of the population of mitochondria per cell examined. Liver biopsies taken from six women with hydatidiform mole and from one women with choriocarcinoma revealed mild focal dilatation and vesiculation of both the rough and smooth endoplasmic reticulum. Mitochondrial modifications were present and included gigantism, pleomorphism and also lamellar osmiophilic inclusions in 10 to 20% of the cases. In one case of hydatidiform mole this change was present in more than 60% of mitochondria examined. The findings are not interpreted as pathological but rather as an exaggeration of a physiological change brought about by an increased metabolic demand during pregnancy or else to a more direct effect of steroid hormones on liver cell organelles.